Researcher Uses Video Games to Help Autistic Children

First posted on 04-28-2008

A researcher at the University of Missouri is using a simple video game called “Space Race” in an effort to “retrain” the brainwaves of autistic children. The hope is to improve skills in concentration and being able to focus.

Guy McCormack, chair of the occupational therapy and occupational science department in the MU School of Health Professions, said he and his team of researchers want to “awaken their brains.” He said that autism often makes such patients disconnect and the video game play may be a way to teach them to be more alert. McCormack went on to say that the hope is for these children “to lay down new neural pathways and, hopefully, see changes in focus and attention span.”

While the children play the video games, their concentration and focus are rewarded by movements on the screen and special sounds. Should their attention wane, sounds stop, colors change and the rocket slows.

The goal, according to McCormack, “is to enable children to consciously control their brainwave activity by being rewarded for their ability to focus.”

McCormack says a body of evidence already exists that has found the use of neurofeedback training helps with other neurological disorders such as traumatic brain injuries, strokes, seizures, depression, anxiety disorders, alcoholism and premenstrual syndrome.